It wasn’t the home result the San Marino High boys’ basketball team wanted in their first Rio Hondo League game back from winter break against Pasadena’s Blair High at home, however, two days later, the Titans took out their frustrations from the loss on to visiting Temple City to get things back on track.
San Marino dominated from the beginning and took the win, battering the Rams to the tune of 70-32 in Rio Hondo League action Jan. 12.
We had to come back after that big loss to Blair on Wednesday night,” Titans senior Bobby Reyes said. “All practice Thursday we were talking about it. We talked about it for about an hour to see what we did wrong and what we did right and just come back. Temple City was just in our way.”
San Marino (19-3 overall, 2-2 in league) won the opening tip and Reyes almost immediately put in a layup. The Rams missed on the other end and Reyes put in a jumper. Temple City (6-12, 0-4) made a 3-pointer for its first points, but after that, the hosts went on a 14-0 run and the rout was on.
“That was our goal today, to just try to clean up some of the technical mistakes we made on Wednesday,” San Marino coach Mihail Papadopulos said. “I mean, they really wanted it. These guys love to compete. They love to fight for each other. So, I saw a lot of that today.”
The run started with a 3-pointer from Titans senior Jayden Tse assisted by Reyes. San Marino junior Mitch Mooney then scored from close before Tse sunk another three, this time assisted by a cross-court pass from junior Casey Chan.
The Titan defense forced the Rams into a 10-second violation, after which Mooney scored again on a putback of his own miss. The hosts then stole the ball, leading to a layup from Reyes after the senior went behind his back with his dribble on the way up. Nicholas Chen finished the run with a reverse layup from the baseline. The final points of the quarter came from freshman Marcus Chen off an assist by Reyes, and the Titans led 28-8 after the opening frame, in which Reyes tallied nine points.
In the victory, all the Titans in uniform saw the floor and 11 different players scored at least one point. Two players reached double figures. Reyes had 17 points and four rebounds, and Marcus Chen, in only his third game at the varsity level, contributed 12 points and six rebounds.
“We think he is just going to have an incredible future, and with Adrian [Huang] down we needed somebody to fill that role,” Papadopulos said. “He just has a feel for the game. He’s an aggressive player [and] has a good feel defensively. He’s a great scorer. He’s a humble, confident kid that all of our seniors and juniors love and he’s just been a wonderful addition.”
It has been a swift ascension through the ranks for the freshman Chen.
“I felt really great playing with varsity and the environment is really good, so I really liked it,” Chen said. “[I’ve been] on all three levels in six months. Summertime I played freshman, fall I played JV and now varsity. So, it really means a lot to me to play with these experienced players.”
Mooney had nine points and grabbed four rebounds. Marco Rangel was the top scorer off the bench with seven points. Tse had six points. Jack Fuerst had five, while Eli Chin and Leo Shyr had four apiece. Nicholas Chen had three points, while Nick Sung and Brady Beck had two and one, respectively.
The Titan offense slowed down in the second quarter, but the hosts still won the frame 11-7 to take a 39-15 cushion into the break.
In the third quarter, the Titan defense was relentless, limiting the Rams to just three points in the period as the Titan offense put up 17, including a 9-0 run. Chin had two free throws with less than one second remaining and San Marino carried a 56-18 advantage into the fourth quarter.
The final period started with all reserves on the floor, including senior Michael Najarian for San Marino, and the Rams were able to halt the bleeding a bit. By the time it was over, the teams split the final frame 14-14. The Titan lead peaked at 40 points with 1:24 to go after Beck made one of two from the charity stripe after the Temple City head coach was called for a technical. The Rams scored the final basket of the contest to set the final margin as the final minute was played with a running clock.
“After our loss to Blair, we went into practice, we were focused and prepared for this game so something like Blair would never happen again to us and we proved it here,” Chan said of the win against the Rams.
First published in the Jan. 18 issue of the San Marino Tribune
